Category: Reflections

By Andy Burrows, 19 December 2018 One of the things that is common when talking to people who have had a brush with cancer is to hear phrases like, “it certainly changes your perspective on things.” And people pick up on that and make all kinds of assumptions about the perspective we’re talking about. Sometimes…

Andy Burrows, 8 October 2018 There is no doubt that my fourth battle with cancer is the toughest challenge of my life. I feel the need to make that clear. I’ll explain what makes it tough in a minute. And I’m not losing my positivity and optimism when I say this. I guess I just…

Andy Burrows, 30 September 2018 Hello! It’s been a while! I can remember writing in one of my articles about my 2015 relapse that I wanted, “to do other things rather than constantly being ‘that guy who has cancer’.” A few months later, I went on to write, “I’m trying to close the door,…

The title of my latest book, Facing Cancer with Faith, may mislead people into thinking that it will only be of interest if you have cancer or if you have faith. Admittedly, it is written very much from a Christian viewpoint, and therefore if you’re not Christian and are not interested in hearing anything about…

Cancer has been a big thing in my life for more than six years. It put me in hospital for nearly two months at the beginning of 2010, and has reared its ugly head again twice since then. Each occasion has involved a roller coaster ride of emotion whilst going through the painfully slow process…

This post is now incorporated with 22 other similar ‘reflections’ in my book, Facing Cancer with Faith. In the ‘Cancer and Me’ chapter I posted back in August 2015 (No 37), I finished by referring to the anxiety that was afflicting me at the time. I took the decision to defer publication of this follow-on…

One day during my stem cell transplant, probably while I was waiting to feel rubbish, I remember chiding myself that I chose this. I was in pretty good health when I came into hospital, and yet I’d decided to come to hospital and be made sick, and then to be off work sick and unemployed…

This post is now incorporated with 22 other similar ‘reflections’ in my book, Facing Cancer with Faith. There are two words in the Bible that, for the Christian, make a huge difference – a huge difference to the way we live, our motivation, our strength in suffering. If someone were to ask me to sum…

First published 24 April 2015 The cross is the primary symbol of all branches of the Christian church throughout the last 2,000 years. It is referenced throughout the world in many different ways. Some Christians wear it as a badge to quietly let people know their affiliation. Some Christians make the gesture of the cross…

First published 15 April 2015 This post is now incorporated with 22 other similar ‘reflections’ in my book, Facing Cancer with Faith. When I first heard about Stephen Fry’s now infamous outburst against God in a recent interview on Irish TV, I admit that I dismissed it as the ranting of a celebrity amateur atheist.…